We are continuing to get great email questions from our readers about the recent FICO announcement. Fair Isaac&39;s decision to change their FICO score formula is causing a lot of people to worry about the impact on their own scores. Here&39;s one question from our reader, Amy: 

My husband and I were able to get our first mortgage loan last year, we have high percentage rate and we only took it so we could get into our house. We were told that we would be able to refinance this year, it has been a year since we closed.  Will the news of the big "FICO" change to remove me as an authorized user from our shared accounts? Is this going to affect us if we try to refinance?

First things first, the FICO change will not do anything to change your existing accounts. Credit scores work as filters that interpret your credit data, they don&39;t have an impact on the information on your credit reports. FICO&39;s decision not to include authorized user accounts in their credit scores means that the "filter" will simply ignore those records.

If you want to be removed as an authorized user from a shared credit card account, you should contact the credit card issuer directly with your request. And if you want to have the old authorized user records removed from your credit report, you can dispute them with the credit bureaus.

Unless the shared credit card had late payments or was maxed out, removing it from your credit score calculation will probably not help to improve your credit scores. It&39;s more likely that your credit scores will drop from the loss of the extra credit limit and established account. This credit score change is true for both removing the account by disputing or after the FICO change takes effect in a few months.

What does this mean for Amy&39;s refinance? She should take a close look at where her FICO credit scores stand. If her scores are higher than 700, it would probably be smart to refinance before the FICO change comes this fall. If she&39;s in the 650-700 range, there&39;s a danger that her credit score could easily drop to "subprime" levels with the change and she might have trouble finding a refinance loan. If her score needs some help, she can read this article about "sprucing up credit scores."

Do you have a question about the FICO score announcement or credit in general? Send us an email!